Thousands of immigrants from Greece came to vote

TIRANA, Feb. 20 – Thousands of Albanian immigrants residing in Greece came to vote in Sunday’s polls causing problems for the Kakavie border crossing. Hundreds of cars crossed the border together with scores of buses.
As expected many of them came to vote in the Greek minority areas, like Himara, where the representative of the Human Rights Union Party Vasil Bollano won the post. Athens reacted nervously to the voting process in Himara. On Sunday the Greek government expressed concern about voting ̩rregularities۠in some Greek-minority areas in southern Albania where municipal elections were staged. ̗e note with concern that various irregularities and other snags have interrupted the smooth process of municipal elections in Albania,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos. He said the government was particularly concerned about problems in the southwestern town of Himara, whose Bollano represented the Greek minority.
Tirana said the irregularities were not serious enough to affect the outcome of the vote. In a related development on Saturday, hundreds of leftist protesters clashed with police outside the Albanian Consulate in the northwestern town of Ioannina. The leftists had gathered outside the consulate to hamper a planned rally by far-right group Chrysi Avgi on the occasion of the 93rd anniversary of the independence of Northern Epirus